Table of Contents
Do not index
Do not index
Hide CTA
Hide CTA
Hide cover
Hide cover
Google Forms does not include a ranked choice voting field. If you’re building a survey in Google Forms and want to know not only which item your respondents prefer but also what they think about the runner-ups, you’ll need a bit of creativity to build a form that ranks their favorite picks.
Here’s how to build a ranked choice vote in Google Forms, how to calculate the vote winner, and alternative tools to build more detailed ranked choice polls in seconds.
What is Ranked Choice Voting?
Do you prefer steak, seafood, or tofu? In an ideal world, everyone gets their favorite entrée.
That is, until the steak runs out. Then it’s a toss-up between seafood and tofu, and now you’d prefer seafood over tofu. Others might have different tastes, one preferring tofu then seafood, another with their heart set on seafood but willing to settle for steak.
Thus ranked choice voting. You vote for your favorite option, as in a traditional poll, then you also vote for which options you’d prefer second, third, and so on. You might not get your favorite outcome, but you’re more likely to get one you can live with.
Ranked choice polls are how Australians vote in elections, and they can be a great way to decide business choices as well—say, to decide which feature to build next. Perhaps some customers passionately want one feature, but the majority of your user base would also like to see another more broadly useful feature added. With a ranked choice vote in your feedback survey, you can uncover that hidden preference and build something everyone’s more likely to love. Same goes for adding new items to your restaurant’s menu, deciding which hours your studio should be open, and more.
Whenever there’s nuance in a multiple choice response, where you’d like to know generally how people feel about a set of choices together, that’s where you should use a ranked choice voting field in your forms and surveys.
How to Build a Ranked Choice Vote in Google Forms
Google Forms’ default new field option is a standard multiple choice field. That’s fine when you want to discover a single preference, but not quite enough for a preference vote.
To build out a ranked choice poll in Google Forms, you’ll need to use the multiple choice grid—and will need your respondents to enter their preference on every item. Here’s how it works.
First, add a new field in Google Forms, then click the default Multiple choice drop-down menu and select the Multiple choice grid field instead. Add each of your ranked choice vote options as rows; we’ll add a row for Steak, Seafood, and Tofu, for this example dinner. Then, add a column for each option; our three dinner options require three columns. Name the columns so your respondents will know how it works, perhaps with a “first,” “second,” and “third” place option.
To make your ranked choice voting work, you need to ensure each voter ranks every choice. For that, check the “Require a response in every row” option at the bottom of the field, and also open the menu and check the “Limit to one response per column” option (without the latter option, you’d have a Likert question, where respondents could choose first place for multiple items).
Now it’s time to test your poll. Save and preview your form to see a hacky ranked choice vote in Google Forms. You’ll need to make a selection on each row, and the settings you just added will prevent respondents from choosing, say, two items for first place.
Share your ranked choice survey, and you’ll find out everyone’s preference—even if it does take them a bit longer to rank their choices.
Do note that Google Forms will, at most, show nine columns at once, so if you build a ranked choice poll with more than 9 options, your respondents will need to scroll horizontally to make all of their selections. It’s not exactly ideal and there are better, free, options.
How to Build Drag-and-Drop Ranked Choice Forms With Fillout
Another option is to build your forms in Fillout, a Google Forms alternative that includes a ranked choice voting form field. With Fillout’s ranked choice voting, you’ll just type your options in a list, then your respondents can drag-and-drop the options into the order they want. Fillout’s free plan includes unlimited forms with 1,000 responses per month—perfect to replace your free Google Forms with more powerful form and survey features.
Here’s how it works. Make a new form in Fillout, and drag the Ranking field into your form. Click on the default options and replace the default text with the items you want people to vote on. Click Add option to add more items, or Bulk add to type a list and have Fillout turn it into ranking options automatically. Drag and drop the items into the order you want, and set the field to be required.
Now, preview your form to test out ranked choice voting. Click on your first preference, and it’ll jump to the top—or drag and drop the options into the order you want. Once you select the next-to-last option, Fillout will automatically put the remaining choice in last place.
And that’s it. You’ll have a ranked choice vote built in seconds, far quicker than you could by tweaking a multiple choice grid into a ranked choice vote in Google Forms. And you can build out the rest of your survey even faster, with Fillout’s AI-powered form creation.
Upgrade Your Google Forms to Add Ranked Choice Voting With Fillout
Already have forms you’ve built out in Google Forms, and want to add drag-and-drop ranked choice voting without rebuilding your forms? You’re in luck.
Fillout’s Google Form importer can take your existing Google Form and turn it into a Fillout form, where you can add a ranked choice field in seconds. You don’t even need a Fillout account to try it out.
Open Fillout’s Google Form importer, connect your Google Forms account, select your form, then choose a theme. Moments later, your form will be ready for editing in Fillout. Drag-and-drop in a new Ranking field, add your options, then remove your workaround field from Google Forms. Then you’re ready to share your new ranked choice voting form with the world.
Written by
Matthew Guay is a writer and co-founder of Pith and Pip. He previously was founding editor of Capiche and Zapier’s senior writer and editor.
